Customer Centric

The first contact with a brand is a critical milestone shaping the nature of the future relationship. Today, one of the first active contacts from a potential client is to push the door of the shop and/or to register on the website of the brand.
Let’s have a look on my experience of registering on 23 brands’ website¹ (Newsletter or Club member) in a sector where the relationship with the brand is key: the Luxury industry (54 websites² consulted across jewellery, watches, cosmetics, fragrance & fashion categories).

A follow-up has been initiated only by a few brands (9 out of 23) and can be categorized as:

Information push (basic information to drive traffic on the website)
Gucci, Hugo Boss, Bulgari & Chanel Fragrance & Beauty
Purchase oriented (shop or on-line)
Dior, Boucheron, Cartier
Interactivity driven
Jaeger-Lecoultre (game based on diving theme)
Louis Vuitton (MP3 city guide…Euros 12!)

And the overall result is…

Jaeger-Lecoultre, Boucheron
Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Cartier
Harry Winston, Gucci, MontBlanc
Please click on the title to read the full article (methodology available on the page 2)
 
3 main conclusions:

Registration
If the process is usually quick & easy, brands do not fully exploit this pro-active first step from the consumer to trigger an effective ”call to action”.
Follow-up
Only few of them initiated a follow-up within the month after the registration. The content might be aligned with the profile (gender, areas of interest…) but without differentiation vs content available to the general public.
Execution
The confirmation of the registration is generally of a very poor quality and generic. The follow-up communication was more in line with the brands’ positioning but still with a gap compared to other media executions.

Some ideas to move forward…

• Customer oriented confirmation message supported  by a “call to action“: interest in a specific product, appointment in a store, link to exclusive content (not accessible for non-members) which could trigger further personalization and differentiation

• Regular and diversified follow-up with a precise objective (brand communication, generate traffic, sales…) in order to build goodwill and commitment

• High quality of execution (message, layout, content)

I will be happy to get your opinion. 

1. Blancpain, Boucheron, Breitling, Bulgari, C.F.Bucherer, Club Cartier, Chanel (Horology & Jewelry, fashion & Glasses, fragrance & Beauty), Frederique Constant, Vacheron Constantin, DIOR (Men, Beauty), Dunhill, Jaeger-Lecoultre, Gucci, Hugo Boss, IWC, Louis Vuitton, YSL, MontBlanc, Harry Winston, Nina Ricci Fragrances, Raymond Weil Club, Van Cleef & Arples, Hermes [↩]
2. 31 brands’ websites didn’t offer the possibility to register to a Newsletter [↩]

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